Learn more about the Tujia people in this magical place

After a fun day of climbing through the forest on top of the Zhangjiajie Avatar mountains, I was now up for more cultural inspiration so I found this little ethnic park on my way around town (Zhangjiajie). The people working there are from the ethnic minority called Tujia and they all wore the minority’s traditional clothing. When I arrived at the entrance (picture above), I couldn’t stop taking photos of these cute girls in their colourful outfits.

I paid an entrance fee (I’m sorry but can’t remember the exact amount) and was put together with a bunch of Chinese tourists who were shown around by another local. She spoke only in Chinese but I said it was okay. I was actually not really paying attention to her stories but spending most of my time staring at all the beautiful costumes, the dancing girls were wearing.

Tourist dressing up for photos

The tourguide took us around the whole park where we saw locals using old instruments to play music for us and they even had a cow walking around just to make it even more authentic. I loved the whole atmosphere there.

Inside one of the old houses

The park was built in 2000 and inside, tourists can explore a true replica of a traditional Tujia village with traditional houses, aunties cooking traditional food, locals playing music and dancing in dashing clothing. It is really well-done and beautiful to walk around in there. I felt like I was in a place far away from the modern society of ‘new’ China.

How to get there:

By Taxi: 土家风情园 (tujiafengqingyuan, Tujia Folk Customs Park) – show the taxi driver the Chinese characters and let him take you there. It is inside the town so not too expensive or complicated to get there.

By bus: Bus no. 5 will stop outside the park. Just let the driver know where you are going. I took the bus and the drivers in Zhangjiajie were all so lovely. They chatted all the way there. If you don’t speak Chinese, just show them the characters above and they will know.

The best time to visit according to me is spring. Not too many tourists and the weather is comfortable and it’s all green. I loved the decorations and interior design inside the traditional houses. There were also small exhibitions with different things such as clothes and cooking tools from long time ago.

Lingling

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My name is Lena and I’m a Danish-blooded China-lover. Wow, okay that sounded quite random. I know, I get that often, let me explain. I was once just a happy girl in Denmark but then I got bored in my comfort zone so I went to China. China was all the trouble I didn’t know I needed in my life.

Since then, I've learned Chinese and been in China for four years. Now, located in Beijing where I study and work.

My mission as a blogger is to tell you about China, maybe even enough to fall in love with this amazing dragon-country, who knows, right? Hope you’ll enjoy my posts on China and travel and remember if you have any questions, feel free to hunt me down and send me a message.